PCI report makes 4 recommendations to protect journalists

 The draft note was forwarded to the council by PCI member Gurbir Singh on August 2. The council’s chairman issued a dissent note, but it was adopted on September 27. 

Newslaundry, 25 Oct, 2024 : A report by a Press Council of India has suggested several measures for the protection of journalists. The council’s chairperson Ranjana Prakash Desai, however, recorded her dissent saying she is “unable to concur with all observations and recommendations”.

The report on the “arrests, wrongful detention, and intimidation of media personnel”, titled “journalism is not crime”, urged the Narendra Modi government to introduce a national law for the security of journalists, give more teeth to the Press Council of India Act, codifying norms for law enforcement personnel, and constant monitoring of the challenges faced by journalists at all levels.

The report was prepared by PCI member Gurbir Singh and forwarded to the council on August 2. While it was adopted by the council on September 27, Desai recorded her dissent pertaining to several points. “My comments and dissent may be taken into consideration.”

To the recommendation about giving more teeth to the Press Council of India Act, Desai said that if punitive measures are to be introduced, they should also be applicable to “erring journalists”. On the need for codifying norms for law enforcement agencies, she said the “investigating agency must be allowed to investigate a case by adopting such procedure as it deems fit”.  

What did the draft report say?

The report cited several alleged instances where the journalists were attacked for their work or arrested by authorities by “misusing” law. It also said that “ministers across party lines, and government functionaries, when threatened by news exposes, misuse enforcement agencies to act, often violently, against press persons”.

The report said that in the NewsClick case, a special cell of the Delhi police last year raided the homes of 86 persons, of whom 61 were journalists. Two of those detained were formally arrested and the police had seized 306 communication gadgets, including cell phones and laptops, and impounded the passports of four journalists.

It also mentioned the UAPA charges slapped on journalists by the Tripura government after the 2021 communal riots in the state. The report said that many state actors unfairly target the journalists. It said that similar precedent was witnessed after the February 2020 communal riots in Delhi, after which many journalists covering the conflict were arrested or detained and charged with instigating "communal tension”. These included journalists associated with The Caravan.   

It cited that as per RSF’s ranking on press freedom. India’s rank has only marginally improved by two spots to 159 out of 180 in 2024. Meanwhile, India Freedom of Expression’s annual report, released in May this year, said that 148 journalists in India had been targeted by state actors and 78 journalists were targeted by non-state actors, including criminals .

Meanwhile, in 2015, the report said, freelance journalist Jagendra Singh was murdered “at the instance of a Samajwadi Party minister Rammurti Verma after his repeated exposes of illegal sand mining and sexual assault on an Anganwadi worker”.         

Among other cases, it said freelance journalist Sandeep Mahajan was attacked by goons “connected to Kishore Patil”, an MLA of Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, journalist Sanjay Rana was arrested and illegally detained “for raising questions to UP state education minister Gulab Devi in respect to election promises”, and Manipur journalist Kishorchandra Wangkhem was arrested three times between 2018 and 2021 “for critical comments against Chief Minister N Biren Singh”. Wangkhem was booked under provisions of the National Security Act.